Ike: Wednesday Night

It's Wednesday night and we are definitely watching Ike. My favorite sites are SciGuy's blog and Storm Pulse (image above). In the image, we are the small green dot, that's about the location of The Woodlands. This map has the storm hitting land as a category 4 and being a category 3 over most of Houston.

I made a trip to Walmart and got the essentials. Water, Gatorade, Chef-boy-ardee, canned soup, bacon and sausage (in the freezer for now), batteries and a couple of books. It was not a mad house but definitely crowded for 9pm on a Wednesday.

In 2005, we went through Rita, which ended up coming in so far to the East of Houston that we didn't see too much damage. I slept through the whole thing actually. Probably 3 trees fell on our street and there were signs of more downed trees in The Woodlands. I fear this will be much worse and it makes me nervous.

Ryan will be busy the next two days making sure his jobs sites are secure and all potential projectile building material is removed. I will have to make the decision on going to work tomorrow. I fear getting stuck in evacuation traffic if I go in, but I don't want to appear to be a slacker either! I'll have to watch the storm projections to guage the panic level of those on the coast.

Friday night, we will probably "hunker down" in our living room with the dog unless things start getting bad, when we will move to the hall or bathroom. It will be Admiral's first hurricane.

Keep the Texas Coast in your thoughts. Right now, it looks like Ike could be a big one.

Update 10pm

As soon as I posted the original post, the 10pm model updates were posted. Ike's projected path has shifted a great deal to the North/East. This puts it much closer to Houston. The Woodlands is again the green dot north of Houston.

The projected landfall intensity is now only a Category 3 but if it made landfall on this path, it looks like we would get those Category 3 winds as far north as The Woodlands.

I am no expert, will be looking forward to SciGuy's explanation in the morning.

Life and Times of Admiral

I was in the study the other day, and had the TV on. I opened the window for a little bit because I was freezing. I guess Admiral heard the TV because after about 10 minutes, I heard him on the side of the house. I looked over and saw his little nose sniffing the corner of the window, then he looked up and saw me. Then, he did this:
I couldn't resist the opportunity to take the picture.

Aussie Chicken

I tried another new recipe from the recipe exchange this week. Allison sent this recipe, Aussie Chicken, found on AllRecipes.com. I am always looking for new chicken recipes since Ryan tends to be "anti-chicken". This recipe sounded like a winner since the chicken was covered in bacon and cheese, two of our favorite foods!!! The result was fantastic... Ryan ate all of his and about 1/3 of mine! That is success in our house when it comes to chicken!

Aussie Chicken
Modified from AllRecipes.com
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
2 teaspoons seasoning salt
6 slices bacon, cut in half
1/2 cup prepared yellow mustard
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

Rub the chicken breasts with the seasoning salt and Worcestershire. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Saute Mushrooms in large skillet with butter. Remove from pan and set aside.
Place bacon in skillet. Cook over medium high heat until crisp. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine the mustard, honey, corn syrup, mayonnaise and dried onion flakes. Remove half of sauce, cover and refrigerate to serve later.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place the breasts in the skillet and saute for 3 to 5 minutes per side, or until browned.
Remove from skillet and place the breasts into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Apply the honey mustard sauce to each breast.
Then layer each breast with mushrooms and bacon.
Sprinkle top with shredded cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and chicken juices run clear. Garnish with parsley and serve with the reserved honey mustard sauce.

Pasta with Pesto, Shrimp and Sweet 100's

The wives in our group of friends started a recipe exchange this Spring. We use a Yahoo! Group to email recipe's weekly. Each person in the group takes a week and sends out 3 recipes. Over the past few months, I have added some great new recipes to my recipe box.

A couple of weeks ago, our friend Jennifer sent out this recipe. The same week, Ryan and I had dinner with her and her husband where she prepared this dish. It was really yummy so I tried it myself and it turned out great.

Pasta with Pesto, Shrimp and Sweet 100's
from Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
8 oz. Angel hair pasta
1 tbsp. Olive oil
8 oz. Large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tsp. Minced garlic
½ cup Pesto
1 cup halved sweet 100s or cherry tomatoes
Grated parmesan, preferably parmigiano-reggiano
Lemon wedges for garnishing

Fill a large saucepan ¾ full of water. Bring to a boil over high heat and add kosher salt. Add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until barely tender, about 4 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

Heat olive oil in same pan over medium heat. Add shrimp and cook about 1 min. Turn shrimp over, add garlic.
Continue cooking about 1 min. more. Add reserved cooking water and pesto and stir until mixed.
Add pasta and tomatoes, toss to combine. Season with kosher salt and pepper to taste. Divide the pasta btw. 2 plates and top with cheese. Garnish each with lemon wedge. Serve.

Grilling!!!

One night last weekend, Ryan and I decided to grill out. We stopped at Kroger on our way home from a day at the lake with his extended family. When we walked in we saw some pre-made kabobs so that gave us the idea... we decided to make our own. Nothing to fancy, just meat, peppers, onions, zucchini and squash. As we walked through the produce section, I couldn't resist a tub of fresh pineapple chunks. Grilled pineapple sounded heavenly, and it was.

Here is our basic recipe.

Beef and Veggie Kabobs

1 - 1.5 lb beef (we got the pre-cut kind)

1 zucchini

1 squash

1 green bell pepper

1 sweet onion

2 cups fresh pineapple chunks

Tony's Cajun Seasoning

Garlic Pepper

Worcestershire Sauce

Tabasco Sauce - Smokey flavor

Slice vegetables in bite sized pieces

Season the meat with Tony's, Garlic Pepper, a few shakes of the Worcestershire and Tabasco.

Sprinkle zucchini and squash with Tony's and Garlic Pepper

Skewer all meat and veggies. We have found that skewering with one item per skewer works best since some things take longer to cook. We also have this nifty skewer set with a stand that allows for the food to not sit directly on the grill.

Place food on hot grill and cook until done. I don't know how long, we just watch it and hope it doesn't burn.

This latest "kabobbing" attempt turned out fantastic. Our grill wasn't big enough for both trays of skewers so the pineapple was dessert. Mmmmm, I could eat grilled pineapple several times a week!

When we grill, Ryan likes to make stuffed jalapenos or stuffed mushrooms. He was in the mood for mushrooms so that's what he made. This is one of those recipes that isn't really a recipe. We just make the cheese stuffing up as we go...

Stuffed Mushrooms

Whole mushrooms, stems removed

1 block cream cheese

grated cheese (Mexican blend, cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella, whatever you like)

garlic pepper

Tony's Cajun Seasoning

Mix the cheeses and seasonings. Our only advice is to start small and add more of each ingredient as you taste test. Don't go overboard on the Tony's because it makes it really salty.

Fill mushrooms with cheese mixture. Leftover cheese mixture makes a great dip with Wheat Thins.

Place on grill, on indirect heat, until cheese is melted and mushrooms are soft.

We are looking forward to our new house, with a nice, new, bigger grill! Too bad that's over a year away!

Admiral Goes to the Lake

We have had our boat for a little over a year now but had never taken Admiral out with us. This is for several reasons -- getting used to the boat, having other people with us, not knowing how he would react, being scared he would go to the bathroom on things or tear things up. We finally gave it a go last night.

We covered the seats with towels as a precaution. He got on the boat with ease and seemed really happy. He of course wanted to jump right in the water so I kept him on the leash. He seemed to like the air in his face but might have also been a little unsure of the bumpy ride. He sat on my lap (not the most comfortable thing for me) for part of the ride out to the island.

He absolutely loved the island, like a little beach which we already knew he loved. Another family was there with 2 dogs so he had playmates which is always fun. He was beat when we left and rode most of the way back to the dock relaxing on the front seat with me. It was a nice Friday evening to be on the water, with my husband and my baby to watch the sun go down.

Edouard...

9:00 am

The news channels are going crazy, I am pretty sure all regular programming has been preempted for the morning. And what do I see out my window... nothing, just some grey sky. I drove into work and it was a pleasant drive. Not much traffic and just a little rain. I hear we are supposed to get some serious rain soon, but still nothing.

I love how they get all in a frenzy about it. The radio station I listen to was making fun of all the hysteria. Listeners are calling in with "weather reports" that pretty much say "oh, its raining a little here". One guy jokingly reported that his lawn chair had blown over. Several minutes later, we got an update that the recovery and clean up effort had begun --the lawn chair had been turned upright.

I guess I'll post updates as I have them. Don't hold your breath, I am sure they won't be too exciting!

12:30 pm update
Still just raining at my office. It's a little windy but nothing to write home about. I think it's worse at home in The Woodlands.

3:00 pm update
Edouard seems to losing some of his organization and the Houston area is about to see a break in the action. The final band should come through this evening. Hopefully I can get out of the office and back home during the little downtime. Hopefully Edouard keeps on moving and doesn't hover on Houston like Allison did.

This storm really didn't pack much punch, definitely not like that storm Mom, James and I drove through in Mobile many years ago... I can't remember which one it was, but I know we were really dumb to leave Pensacola and try to drive home. I believe it was James's fault we left... like a good little sister, blame it on my brother :)